recent trip to Humenne
I thank everyone who helped me before my trip to Humenne.I was fortunate enough to return safely on September 9.
Apparently the hotel Carpathia was under renovation.We stayed at the Hotel Chemes.For about 35 dollars a day we had a large apartment.The beds were very uncomfortable and my 79 year old mother couldn't make the step up into the shower and had to wash in the sink everyday.However it was clean and I understand one of the nicest properties in town and it got at least one English channel on the TV.
Thehotel clerk told us that people from Starina had been moved into a relatively new suburb at the edge of Humenne and she called her friend to find out if someone named Spisak lived there.The friend told us to drive over there and stop at the beer garden and ask, which we did.Within minutes we were knocking on the house of my grandfather's nephew.Unfortunately he wasn't home but at 10 that night his two neices came home and the neighbors sent them over to our hotel where we visited until after 1 AM!The houses in this area were nice brick duplexes, quite unlike the Soviet style stone box apartment buildings that compose a lot of the rest of the country.
Starina is indeed flooded as part of a dam project. We were able to see it clearly from the road (right underneath the NO PHOTOGRAPHS sign).Apparently the Soviets hid missles under there in the eighties.
This is what I learned about the Spisaks.
My great-grandfather was Feodor (or Teodor) Spisak, birth dates unknown.He was apparently in the Austrian or Hungarian army until he was in his 30's.He travelled to the US at least once and possibly twice to earn money which he put back into the farm building a barn, buying livestock and fencing the land.His children were Micheal, George, Mary, Anna and John all of whom came to the US in the first two decades of 1900, and Frank who came to Canada.Feodor's children in the US were also called "Schweitzer" by cousins and friends, so we wonder if there was a name change somewhere as well.He also fathered at least one child Wasil by a different woman who may have been named Maria - we believe it was after the mother of his other children died but we are not certain about this.Feodor later died in a fire, supposedly rescuing the livestock.
Wasil stayed in Slovakia.Wasil had three children Juraj, Maria (recently deceased) and Zuzanna (recently deceased).It was Juraj's house we went to but he was in Bratislava visiting one of his children (but we think we have his address).The two women we met were Maria's daughters Maria and Ivetta.They were able to confirm the identity of a family photograpy of Zuzanna for us.They have another sister Nadia.Apparently Zuzanna has two children Rastislav and Rene.
Are any of you related to these Spisaks?If so, perhaps we are related!